Microsoft® unveils Windows® 7 upgrade tool for netbooks

Microsoft has unveiled a tool that enables netbook owners migrate to Windows 7 on their systems using a USB flash drive, instead of the usual requirement of a DVD drive.

The tool, Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool, creates a bootable flash drive from a downloaded .iso file, or disk image, of Windows 7, and can be acquired from Microsoft's online store.

The software giant said in instructions accompanying the tool that it allows a user to create a copy of the .iso file to a USB flash drive or a DVD. To install Windows 7 from your USB flash drive or DVD, all you need to do is insert the USB flash drive into your USB port or insert your DVD into your DVD drive and run Setup.exe from the root folder on the drive.

The device does away with the problem facing netbooks users who intend to upgrade to Windows 7, since virtually all netbooks lack a DVD drive.

Without an optical drive, users require a 4GB USB drive to install Windows 7 on a PC, the software giant said. They also need .NET Framework 2.0 or later, and the ability to run as administrator on the to-be-upgraded netbook.

The netbook's BIOS must also be restructures to set the boot order so that the USB drive is first on the list. Microsoft recommends to see the documentation for your computer for information on how to change the BIOS boot order of drives.

You can download the USB/DVD Download Tool, a 947KB file, from Microsoft's site - download .exe file.